Maintenance Act amendments clamp down on defaulters

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The legislation now allows:

• The personal information of defaulters to be submitted to credit bureaux
• defaulters to be blacklisted
• courts to order mobile network service providers to share contact details to trace defaulters
• maintenance applications to be lodged in the jurisdiction where the defaulter works, and not only where they live
• courts to place an interim order while waiting for the final outcome
• cost orders to be granted even if child maintenance defaulters are absent from court proceedings
• courts to impose three years’ imprisonment without option of a fine for continued defaulters